Reuters: Iraq Parliament Delays Vote On Provincial Elections Law
The elusive magical success pony in Iraq just got scared away (again):
Iraqi parliamentarians failed on Sunday to pass a law on provincial elections, putting the date of important polls in doubt and leaving unresolved a political standoff that has stoked ethnic tensions.
After struggling for hours to reach a quorum, lawmakers indefinitely postponed a special session they had called to pass the law, which has come unstuck over plans for the disputed northern city of Kirkuk and angered minority Kurds.
The delay may mean the elections, originally planned for October 1, could be put off until next year. Electoral officials have said they need months to plan once the law is passed.
So much for all those defiant assertions about how us dirty fucking hippies simply must admit that teh surge is TOO working!
Related: More from Elizabeth Ferris of The Brookings Institution on Kirkuk, “the next ‘powder keg’ in Iraq” (PDF).
McCain Denies He Said Obama’s Timetable Looks Good
Two days ago, John McCain told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that the 16-month withdrawal timeline proposed by Barack Obama and endorsed by Nouri al-Maliki “is a pretty good timetable,” adding that it had to be based on conditions on the ground.
AP Analysis: U.S. Is Winning Iraq War
The Associated Press has taken a sharp right turn and swallowed gallons of Kool-aid. I don’t quote from or link to AP articles, so I will list the reporters’ (Robert Burns and Robert H. Reid) arguments and link to commentary.
The Right’s Ahistorical Analysis of the Surge
Bob Herbert in his column today critiques the premise behind the media’s coverage of Barack Obama and John McCain: that the latter’s character and political history are known to all but Obama’s isn’t:
That Was the Sheikh That Was
McCain’s attempts to get his cart before the horse analysis of the surge to make sense have only dug him in deeper:
Traveling Back in Time To Justify the Surge
Here’s the bottom line about McCain’s verbal typos: People would not make so much of them if McCain’s statements on foreign policy made sense in a larger, general context. Obama sometimes misstates facts that obviously he knows, out of exhaustion (like “57 states”), but he does not make extended statements or speeches about foreign policy that are substantively and factually wrong.
The Images The Right Does Not Want America To See
Al Rodgers at DailyKos has put together a tremendous collection of videos and pictures from Barack Obama’s visit to the Middle East.
Click on the first video and see the incredible reception Barack receives from the troops and staff members at the U.S. Embassy.
I’ve jacked one picture here, but click on the link and check out the whole thing.
Fun With Maps
Matthew Yglesias has some irresistible snark on that fictional border between Iraq and Pakistan.
Domenico Montanaro explains that McCain “probably meant to say the Afghanistan-Pakistan border as they were talking about Afghanistan and there is no Iraq-Pakistan border. ” Montanaro also passes on the Republican defense to McCain’s many flubs:
Republicans have pointed out Obama telling CBS he’d be dealing with Maliki for the next eight to 10 years. They have snarkily said apparently Obama wants to change the Constitution because the most a president can serve is eight years. If Obama were to serve two terms, that would be about eight-and-a-half years from now. Republicans also point out that it’s been 925 days since Obama has been to Iraq, but McCain has been there eight times.
And he still doesn’t know which countries border Iraq.
Do You Have To Know Geography To Be Good at Foreign Policy?
So far, Barack Obama has not made any faux pas in his trip to Afghanistan and Iraq — but John McCain has:
… In a verbal flub that will spark renewed recollections of his Shiite/Sunni miscue earlier this year while he was visiting the Middle East, he erroneously reconfigured the map of the world.
Asked on ABC about the uptick in violence by Islamic extremists in Afghanistan, he replied: “We have a lot of work to do and I’m afraid it’s a very hard struggle, particularly given the situation on the Iraq/Pakistan border.”
Iraq borders several nations, but Pakistan is not among them — looming between the two is Iran. (Pakistan’s neighbors, however, include Afghanistan).
Steve Benen has the video.
What the F**king Hell Is Wrong With This Man?
Josh Marshall, Talking Points Memo:
This is the lead on a story just out over the Reuters wire …
Republican presidential candidate John McCain said on Friday that his Democratic opponent, Barack Obama, is likely to be in Iraq over the weekend.The Obama campaign has tried to cloak the Illinois senator’s trip in some measure of secrecy for security reasons. The White House, State Department and Pentagon do not announce senior officials’ visits to Iraq in advance.
“I believe that either today or tomorrow — and I’m not privy to his schedule — Sen. Obama will be landing in Iraq with some other senators” who make up a congressional delegation, McCain told a campaign fund-raising luncheon.
The Reuters piece hints at it. But if Obama is going to be in Iraq this weekend, this is a major breach on McCain’s part.
The Articles That Got Away
I admit, I missed some:
The great thing about Tom Friedman is that he never gives us a chance to forget what an idiot he is.
Colonialism off: Pres. Bush will not get his Status of Forces Agreement before he leaves office.
Jeralyn’s post about the Omar Khadr interrogation video includes links to transcripts of previous trial proceedings and TalkLeft’s prior coverage of the case.
Matthew Yglesias’s post, “War for War’s Sake,” is one of his last as an Atlantic contributor (he’s moving to the Center for American Progress).
Ron Beasley writes about a radioactive river.
We already know that John McCain called his wife a “cunt.” Now we find out he is a fan of rape jokes as well.
Did you know that the only way to get around Arizona is by small private plane?
Over 100 University of Chicago professors have signed a letter to the university president objecting to the university’s new $200 million investment.
The Bush administration is trying to push through a new rule requiring recipients of federal health aid funding to certify that opposition to abortion or to contraception will not be a bar to employment. (To bypass compulsory free registration, go to www.bugmenot.com.)
Maliki wants the Green Zone back, too.
It’s About the Oil. Black Gold. It’s Worth Much More Than Blood.
“That’s an irrational and ahistorical way to view a country at the strategic center of the Middle East, with some of the world’s largest oil reserves. Whether or not the war was a mistake, Iraq’s future is a vital U.S. security interest. If he is elected president, Mr. Obama sooner or later will have to tailor his Iraq strategy to that reality.” – WaPo editorial this morning
Sneaky, Sinister Goings-On Over at Obama’s Website
Another example of pathologizing evolving responses to changed fact sets:
Obama, Iraq, and the Media
The New Republic takes the media to task for the way it’s framing Obama’s position on Iraq:
“Standards in Our Society Have Changed Over the Years”
Here’s an investigative series from the Sacramento Bee that might rate a Pulitzer nomination. The Bee spent a year researching the civilian and military records of U.S. service members, “focusing on those who entered the services since the Iraq war began and those linked to in-service problems.”
More Regrettable Loss of Innocent Life
Once again, scores of civilians are dead because of a U.S. air strike: